The Mafulu eBook

feet long and 20 feet above water at the lowest part,
and as being made of lawyer vine (I do not know whether
this would be right for Mafulu), with flooring of pieces
of stick supported on strips of bark, and as presenting
a crazy appearance, which made the Governor’s
carriers afraid of crossing it, though it was in fact
perfectly safe, and had very little movement, even
in the middle. I also give in Plate 65 a photograph
taken by myself [63] of a bridge over the St. Joseph
river, close to the Kuni village of Ido-ido, which,
though a Kuni bridge, may, I think, be taken as fairly
illustrative of a Mafulu bridge over a wide river.
[64] Plate 66 is a photograph, taken in Mafulu, of
another form of suspension bridge used by them, and
adapted to narrower rivers, the river in this case
being the Aduala. (4) The bamboo bridge. This
is a highly arched bridge of bamboo stems. The
people take two long stems, and splice them together
at their narrow ends, the total length of the spliced
pair being considerably greater than the width of the
river to be bridged. They then place the spliced
pair of bamboos across the river, with one end against
a strong backing and support on one side of the river
and the other end at the other side, where it will
extend for some little distance beyond the river bank.
This further end is then forcibly bent backward to
the bank by a number of men working together, and
is there fixed and backed. The bamboo stems then
form a high arch over the river. They then fix
another pair of stems in the same way, close to and
parallel with the first one; and the double arch so
formed is connected all the way across with short
pieces of wood, tied firmly to the stems, so as to
strengthen the bridge and form a footway, by which
it can be crossed. They then generally add a
hand rail on one side.

One can hardly leave the question of physical communications
without also referring to the marvellous system of
verbal communication which exists amongst the Mafulu
and Kuni and other mountain people. Messages
are shouted across the valleys from village to village
in a way which to the unaccustomed traveller is amazing.
It never seemed to me that any attempt was made specially
to articulate the words and syllables of the message,
or to repeat them slowly, so as to make them more
readily heard at a distance off, though the last syllable
of each sentence is always prolonged into a continuous
sort of wail. This system of wireless telegraphy
has, however, been before described by other writers,
so I need say no more about it.

CHAPTER VII

Government, Property, and Inheritance

Government and Justice.

There is, as might be expected, no organised system
of government among the Mafulu, nor is there any official
administration of justice.